Nurse Bloomberg, scourge of ashtrays and destroyer of jobs, can now point to another consequence of his smoking ban – it’s become a moneymaking opportunity for criminal gangs and, possibly, terrorists. Worse still, as blogger Radley Balko points out, this was something that the Bloomberg ‘administration’ anticipated ahead of the introduction of its ridiculous and, it seems, quite literally lethal law and yet it still went ahead with it.

To Balko, this is proof that the ban was not about public health, but money. He’s half right. It was never about public health, but the motive wasn’t money. It was a power trip, pure and simple.

If Bloomberg had a shred of decency he would resign. But as he doesn’t, he won’t.